‘General Hospital Week in Review: Maternal Instincts

General Hospital had a pretty solid week, mostly in part to its Wednesday episode. There was hospital, romance, family, humor and heartbreak. Everything I want to see on a soap opera. I actually watched the episode more than once. It would be nice if this was the kind of show that we got all the time.

GH also had a few announcements drop last week. Co-head writer Jean Passanante announced her retirement from the soap industry. During Passanante’s career as a soap scribe, she had a hand in creating some of the most romantic moments the genre had to offer. Her time with GH is not without its faults but I loved her attention to couples and love stories. I have nothing but best wishes for her. Co-head writer Shelly Altman will be staying. There has been no announcement yet if GH will hire a co-head writer.

In casting news, One Life to Live alum James DePaiva will be stopping by Port Charles for a limited time in a top secret role. DePaiva’s, who is best known for playing Max Holden on OLTL, first television role was Eddie Holton on GH in 1985. There has been a lot of speculation regarding who he will be playing now and who his character will be connected to.

Picks of the Week

All In The Family

Curtis makes a wish.

GH is giving the increasingly popular Curtis some family drama that in my opinion could upgrade the character from sidekick to leading man. Nowadays soaps have a tendency to tell audiences which characters they are suppose to want to watch rather than let the viewer decide. It feels like in the case of Curtis, fans told GH they like the character and then the writers responded appropriately by expanding his story. Here’s hoping that trend continues because right now I’m loving Curtis’ story line.

I know GH does not need more characters but I’d gladly keep Aunt Stella. Vernee Watson is a riot and her presence gave a dragging story line a much needed jolt. Donnell Turner and Vinessa Antoine have chemistry but Curtis and Jordan’s forbidden romance was falling a bit flat. It needed higher stakes to give it the depth the story deserved. The disapproving Stella has added layers to the tale. Jordan was reluctant to be involved with her late husband’s brother, not wanting to appear manipulative and immoral. Now after she has taken things to the next level with Curtis, she has to reckon with the fact that Stella sees her exactly how she didn’t what to be perceived. Stella was furious when she saw that Curtis had taken up with the woman she believes destroy her family. And all her anger comes without even knowing yet that TJ’s real father is Sean not Tommy. The writers were smart to hold off on dropping that bomb right away. I suspect we won’t have to wait too much longer for the truth to come out and Jordan better watch out once it does.

Adventures In Babysitting

Hayden’s day with the kids doesn’t go as hoped.

Hayden bit off more than she could chew when she decided to watch Cameron and Spencer. Things went array when she took the mischievous young rivals to Perks coffeehouse where they got wound up on caffeine and sugar. Before long Hayden was calling Laura to help her break up a food fight. Laura and Hayden must have made a mends on #GHOffscreen perhaps for Liz’s sake. I’m not particularly excited about Hayden and Finn having a baby story but I liked it last week. Hayden’s anxiety about whether she’ll be a good mother is something I think a lot of viewers can relate with. It’s nice to see a more grounded pregnancy story after years of thermoses, puppy visions and crypt conceptions. As least Hayden can rely on Finn…they just need to figure out how to prove he’s clean and sober.

Pans of the Week

Have Mercy

The Sonny and Ava scenes this last week made me think of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode “Fool For Love”. The episode focused on the good and evil conflict between enemies Buffy and vampire Spike. With gun in hand, Spike went to Buffy’s house to kill her but, when he found her in pain, he ended up comforting her instead. I wanted something more like that to happen between Sonny and Ava. It would have been nice to see a moment of compassion from our “hero” regardless of his feelings towards the mother of his child. Both Carly and Sonny should be angry at Ava but does that anger have to be devoid of humanity? Ava has been burned alive. What more punishment do they want? It may not be enough for some blog chat hosts but it’s more than enough for me. We did get some sympathy from them towards Ava’s daughter as the week wore on. Hopefully, Carly and Sonny will eventually surprise me.

Blasted Past

For some reason, Michael likes Nelle.

If the Nelle that we are getting now was the one we had gotten all along, I would probably be shipping the heck out of her pairing with Micheal. The chemistry is starting to warm up and there has been a cuteness to recent interactions. It’s too bad that Nelle was introduced to us as a mismatched combination of Lolita and Duggar girl. GH seems determined to make this couple the next hot thing and they could have been if early effort was focused on making this new character a viable love interest for Michael rather than causing drama for his parents. The show’s solution to fixing the initial missteps seems to be to ignore that she made Sonny think they had sex. It wasn’t even really brought up when Sonny asked Nelle to help the family in their pursuit of #JusticeforMorgan. If someone were just tuning in, they would probably have no idea why Michael’s parents don’t want him dating her. It’s a sticky situation because while I don’t want to watch any of the fallout from Nelle’s revenge, completely ignoring it makes the story incohesive. I just wish I was watching Serena Baldwin on my TV screen instead.

On the Fence

Where Is My Mind?

Sam’s troubled by her thoughts.

I’m happy to see that Sam is getting a much needed leading story. Whether or not it’ll be a good one remains to be seen but so far I’m intrigued. It’ll be something different for Kelly Monaco to play which is what has my interest. Sam is hearing voices warning her that her family is in danger. A bit unnerving for the new mother to say the least. Fans have been speculating that she is suffering from postpartum depression but the paranoia she is feeling seems like something else. I think there might be something wrong with her brain. Luckily, General Hospital has a brain surgeon on staff. Another theory is that the situation is more supernatural than medical. Helena did put a curse on Sam after all.